Tokugawa Shogunate

Maggie Defrancesco and Lucian Tamburro

Tokugawa Shogunate

Maggie Defrancesco and Lucian Tamburro

Thesis

Tokugawa Shogunate collapse for many reasons, during the Edo period, there was a lot of deforestation, creating environmental complications, many urban fires killing many citizens of Tokugawa, there was also crop decline that caused large food shortages, and there was wars throughout the country.

Deforestation

One of the main reasons Tokugawa Shogunate declined was because of deforestation. During the Edo period, the people of the Tokugawa Shogunate civilization built their houses out of wood instead of stone, brick, cement, and other popular building materials of other civilizations. Eventually, wood became scarce due to all the construction with it. This became a large environmental problem as wood was needed for shelter and warmth in the winter. Many fights broke out due to the lack of wood and need for more of it. And the Tokugawa forests were left empty.

Urban Fires

Because the people of the Tokugawa Shogunate civilization built their houses out of wood, it was very easy for fires to begin, especially in the winter. In the winter, wood was burned in wooden houses to keep warm, but very easily fires would start and some fires were extremely deadly to the people of the Tokugawa Shogunate civilization. Like in 1657, when the Meireki fire burned the capital of Edo, killing 100,000 people. There were many fires that helped lead to the decline of the Tokugawa Shogunate civilization, the Meireki fire being one of them. These fires devastated thousands of people destroying many peoples lives.

Wars Caused Social Breakdown

In Tokugawa Shogunate civilization depended on social order. There where many different classes. When the government started to breakdown so did the social structure. The wars in Tokugawa Shogunate took a big hit on all of the land and people. This caused the social structure to breakdown and play a huge part why Tokugawa Shogunate collapsed. These wars also took a lot away from the land. Which caused crop and agriculture to decline as well.

Massive Food Shortages

Because of all the wars going on in Tokugawa Shogunate all the exports and imports decreased. Half of Tokugawa's trading was shut down and created a big dent in there supplies. Another reason of the food shortages was because the farms where ruined and they where not able to plant the crops. This caused agriculture to decline in Tokugawa Shogunate.

Work Cited

Works Cited

"Decline of the Tokugawa." Decline of the Tokugawa. U.S. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.